I have been blessed with the cutest bunch of littles this year, but, they are just that- LITTLE! And over the summer, I researched the best practices for teaching calendar concepts for preschoolers and found out some interesting things. I will link to a thought-provoking article at the end of the post, but I just wanted to take a few quick minutes to explain my most "interesting" findings:1. MOST calendar concepts that are taught at the pre-K level are NOT age-appropriate. (I have to admit, I am guilty of this one...) Basically, we are overshooting on this one and it isn't helping our students.2. Developmentally speaking, most children don't truly begin to understand the passage of time in terms of minutes, days, etc. until the age of 7. Some kids get good at the rote reporting, but true understanding of the material in such a way that they can actually USE the information is generally still years away.

So here's a direct quote from the NAEYC article that really grabbed my attention:

"However, most 4-year-olds are not ready to grasp the complex concepts involved in dates (Etheridge & King 2005)."

So, then, IF the kiddos that I am teaching are not ready to learn this stuff in any meaningful way, why am I teaching it?!? The answer? I'm ashamed to admit it. I saw the other pre-K teachers doing it. If the regular education pre-K classrooms are learning it, then by golly, my kids will too! Except, all of the research that I've been doing is all saying the same thing- THEY'RE NOT READY FOR THIS YET.

But then, I KNOW that there are kids every year who DO grasp the calendar concepts that I teach, so what do I do so that the few who ARE ready to learn it can go forward with their learning while I am not banging my head trying to teach the ones who are age-appropriately just not there yet!?!